Television broadcasting technology has improved tremendously since its inception. Today, television signals are broadcasted on the airwaves, through cables, and via satellite. The number of stations accessible today has increased to hundreds of stations. To select a program to view, many viewers simply "channel surf" until they find a channel that has a desirable program. Channel surfing refers to the process of using the channel "+" or "-" key to sequentially view each channel. Although some viewers find channel surfing among hundreds of stations enjoyable, most viewers prefer a more direct method for selecting a program to view.
Some prior art television channel select on guides provide a television channel selection guide which displays a listing of the channels typically in numeric order and the titles of the programs broadcasted or to be broadcasted on the channels. A simplified block diagram of such a guide is illustrated in FIG. 1. The viewer or user of the system may then select the channel by entering in the channel number or selecting a program. The system responds by removing the guide displayed and tuning to the station selected and displaying the broadcast signals of the station.
This system has a number of drawbacks. First, the guide provides only the title of the program. To get additional information, such as a written description of the program, the user must select an information button which responds by bringing up a second layer of the menu having the program description. Thus, as the number of stations increase, the efficiency of reviewing programs and program descriptions decreases.
Furthermore, many viewers prefer to preview an actual broadcast on a station before selecting that station for viewing. In the prior art systems, the user has to select each station to view, and subsequently go back to the channel guide in order to view program titles on other channels. While other prior art systems may provide a program listing having a transparent background superimposed over a program broadcast, it is still difficult to view the program broadcast through the program listing.
Moreover, in any television system a user can channel surf by skipping from channel to channel in sequence using the channel "up" or "down" buttons. However, when channel surfing in the prior art systems, the user is unable to take advantage of the channel listing and program description information. While some prior art television channel selection guides allow for channel surfing while the guide is displayed, these systems change the channel as the user moves a selection device or pointer to each new channel. Again this prevents taking full advantage of the broadcast system guide because, while the system guide provides program descriptions, a user might like to view a particular channel while surfing among the program descriptions of other channels.
Another shortcoming of prior art television channel selection guides is that, while providing the current time on the guide display, they do not provide a clear representation of the current time in relation to the channel program listings. Consequently, it is difficult for a user to ascertain the amount of time elapsed since a particular program began.
In the current generation of broadcasting technology, a viewer is provided with many options regarding programs that are available for broadcast. These options include, but are not limited to, on-demand selection of pay-per-view broadcasts, selection of a broadcast for automatic recording, and programming a broadcast system to tune to a preselected station at a designated time. As the number of options increases, so to does the need for a user-friendly system interface. The prior art channel selection guides do not provide a ready status indication as part of the channel selection guide. In addition, as the channel selection guides become more interactive and provide the viewer with more selections, the lack of status displays for system pointers and tuners can lead to a great deal of viewer frustration.